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IMAGINATIVE ENTERTAINMENT SINCE 1986
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The Carolyn Sills Combo
Western Swing / Roots Rock/Honky Tonk … and more!
Hailing from Santa Cruz, The Carolyn Sills Combo makes award-winning American roots music that reaches across genre boundaries and state lines. It's a sound built for juke joints, dive bars, theaters, and campfires, driven forward not only by Telecaster twang and swooning steel, but also the sharp songwriting of the band's frontwoman.
"I love writing story-driven snapshots where every word counts," says Sills, a Sacramento Western Swing Hall of Fame inductee who serves as her group's lead singer, bass player, and chief songwriter. "We're always growing and evolving." adds Sills, "We've received some awards for western swing music, but our sound is bigger than that. It's a big mix."
The Carolyn Sills Combo embraces the full range of its influences, making room for classic country, modern Americana, roadhouse rock & roll, and ageless honky tonk. Carolyn's a classic American roots musician for the modern world, nodding to her old-school favorites one minute and exploring new ground the next. She is joined by steel guitarist Charlie Joe Wallace, harmony vocalist Sunshine Jackson, drummer Jimmy Norris, and guitarist/husband Gerard Egan (who also performs with Sills in the old-school country & western side project Poi Rogers.)
- 2023 Ameripolitan Award Nominee for Western Swing Female
- 2021 Academy of Western Artists Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year
- 2020 NEXTie Band of the Year
- 2018 Ameripolitan Western Swing Group of the Year
- Three Inducted Members to the Sacramento Western Swing Society Hall of Fame
MUSIC SAMPLES
Betcha Don't Want Me
Scratched & Weathered
Bad for You
Hey Kid
"... the band flawlessly fuses classic country, rockabilly, blues and Western swing into a timeless Americana sound ... a fresh twist on traditional music that shows maturity and an appreciation for the genres that shaped it."
Western Horseman Magazine
"Bassist Carolyn Sills and her guitarist husband, Gerard Egan - Santa Cruz's Les Paul and Mary Ford - crank out good stories, catchy love songs and creative chord progressions that will take listeners back to rockabilly vibes of the post-World-War-II era."
Good Times Magazine
"Carolyn Sills makes the West come alive with her stirring renditions of western swing, country blues, spaghetti westerns and more. Listening to her music is like stepping into an old saloon or smoke-filled jazz club. The bassist and singer performs old-timey originals with titles like "Bad for You" and "Loaded Gun," poetic throwbacks to music that's too rarely heard these days."
Monterey County Weekly
"Seguing seamlessly between western swing, country, rockabilly, blues, and spaghetti western, the Combo's ... tight, lively, and refreshing. Sills' vocals sear, while guitarman Gerard Egan accents with inventive and toneful licks and solos. Charlie Joe Wallace adds stylish pedal steel."
Vintage Guitar Magazine
Poi Rogers
Hawaiian and Western Swing Duo
Somewhere in-between the tropical lounges of 1930s Los Angeles and the honky tonk beer joints of rural 1950s California, you'll find Poi Rogers. Hailing from Santa Cruz, CA, the duo performs original and vintage country & western swing, Hawaiian steel guitar ballads and cowboy tunes.
Gerard Egan and Carolyn Sills are both inductees into the Sacramento Western Swing Hall of Fame. Carolyn was named the Academy of Western Artists’ 2021 Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year, and was nominated for a 2023 Ameripolitan Award for the same. They front the award winning five piece band, The Carolyn Sills Combo, which has released four albums and one doughnut to date.
Poi Rogers features Gerard doubling on acoustic guitar and his 1954 Fender triple neck steel guitar with Carolyn on standup bass, their timeless harmonies anchoring the show.
